Parliamentarian proposes using foreign experts to save government’s losses

CAIRO - 25 April 2017: Egypt should rely on the experience of foreign experts to direct governmental and service bodies, since the government’s lack of experience has led to massive losses in those institutions, according to MP Amr El-Gohary, a member of the House of Representatives’ Economic Committee.

Gohary told Egypt Today that using foreign experts will narrow the losses of governmental holding companies and service apparatuses. He said bringing in profit and training personnel will be the criteria to evaluate their efficiency.

Answering the question of securing funding to hire foreign experts, Gohary said the cost will be way less than the loss currently incurred by those institutions, pointing out that Egypt could make an industrial leap if it renews its vision and uses trusted experts; he rejected the option of privatizing governmental economic bodies.

“I’ve submitted a request to the Speaker of the House to form a committee to sort the losses of governmental economic bodies,” Gohary stated, revealing that he will get the response next week.

The economic bodies’ losses reached EGP 350 billion ($19.2 billion) in 2016, whilst the budget for state’s employees wages and compensation reached EGP 239.5 billion ($13.2 billion) for the fiscal year 2017/2018.

During his speech at the 2nd Government Dialogue Conference last March, the MP criticized the government for taking decisive economic decisions without referring to the parliament, such as floating the local currency and accepting a $12 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“The government rectified this mistake and presented the IMF loan decision for discussion in parliament, which will enable the parliament to monitor the performance of government,” Gohary told Egypt Today.